Bittersweet Youth
by danieldeon
Summary: The drama inside our group is unmatched, but I don't think anyone of us would throw it away if given the option. We've made this indestructible bond over these four years, we've fallen in love, been in hate and managed to still make it to class on time.


_This story has been begging me to write it for some time now, so here it is. For now there will be no solid pairings it's high school and I wanted to make it semi realistic. Anywho please enjoy and feel free to give constructive criticism. By the way the story will be switching POV's so it won't only be Sakura's. Ugh so this got deleted because for some reason when I read over it, it was missing parts of my story...annoying I guess I have to super proof read.  
_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto._

"A fucking sophomore!"Ino chanted excitedly beside me. "Do you know what that means billboard brow?"

I sighed heavily not bothering to look at Ino. "What does it mean Ino-pig?"

"It means we're not stupid fucking freshman," she exclaimed twirling her long ponytail in my face. I slapped her lemon yellow locks away and glared at her. "Aw what? Your nervous about your first day here?" I pouted; she hit the nail right on the head. "Don't worry you have your best friend here to guide you! You'll be flirting with all the cool guys in no time." She grinned and continued talking about the boys in the school while I tuned her out and tried to suppress my nervousness. It's not every day that you're accepted into Konoha High School for the Gifted and Talented (A.K.A KHSGT); I mean shit you had to get at least a 90% on the entrance exam. "Look Sakura!" Ino pointed at the school that was finally coming into view and I grimaced. The place was huge, much bigger than the high school I just transferred out of.

"Say, Ino?" she turned her head to look at me. "What did you get on your entrance exam?" her face went blank for all of a second until she regained her composure crossing her arms over her chest and pointing her nose high in the air.

"A 94%, why do you need to know?" it was now my turn for my face to go blank.

"You're that smart?"

"Well of course, I'm not like you who had to take the entrance exam three times." She swung her hair in my face for the fifteenth time since we left her house. I was beginning to become annoyed with her and her stupid hair flicking.

"Well I didn't have an awesome tutor like Shikamaru on my side; didn't he just get a 90% because doing the rest of the test would be troublesome?"

"Yeah he went to sleep half way through it and amazed everyone when he still got in." We walked into the gates of our school, it seemed even bigger up close and I was starting to break into a nervous sweat I barely made it in myself. I had scratched up a measly 92%.

I looked around at all the students; half of them didn't look like they could possibly be smarter than a junior high school student but then again you can't judge a book by its cover, especially when the schools expectations were so high.

"Hey Ino, Sakura!" We both looked towards the male voice calling our names. Ino placed her hands on her hips and glared at Choji who was snacking on a bag of chips. "What?" he mumbled cramming more chips into his mouth.

"What do you mean what? Isn't it too early in the morning to be eating an unhealthy snack like chips!" she questioned the now frowning Choji.

"It's never too early for chips!" he declared pumping a fist in the air causing some of the students to look our way; I turned my back to them. I was already nervous enough they didn't need to go and embarrass me. I grumbled placing my backpack slightly over my face so no one could get a clear look at me. I looked around again, this time spotting Shikamaru walking towards us his hands shoved in his pants pocket he was looking down the entire time. At first it seemed he didn't notice them standing there because he had walked past without saying anything just grabbing my arm and walking me away from Ino and Choji who were still argueing.

"Hey Sakura." He mumbled out as he let go of my arm and let me walk myself.

"Hey Shikamaru." I smiled grimly, he noticed this and chuckled.

"Rough morning?"

"Yeah, I walked to school with Ino and then we met up with Choji and yeah you know the rest."

"Troublesome." He muttered as we climbed the steps. We entered the building and I was awe struck.

"Are these marble floors?" Shikamaru looked at me and raised a brow.

"You've never seen marble flooring?" he questioned.

"Well yeah but not in a school," I must have looked like a vagrant in a castle. "My old school had this really cheap flooring that people would break for shits and giggles." Shikamaru looked ahead of him now.

"Now that sounds charming." I chuckled nervously, great now Shikamaru thought I went to a hoodlum infested school. Well then again it's Shikamaru he probably didn't care much and he knew my situation. We all pretty much grew up together, him Ino and Choji had been together since birth and well I met Ino because we went to the same daycare when we were younger, which made Shikamaru and Choji my mutual friends.

"Yo Shika!" A blonde boy walked over to us, I recognized him as Naruto we had met a few times on the outings Ino made me go to with her.

"What's up Naruto?" Shikamaru looked at him with the same bored expression that he always had.

"The freshmans!"

"What?" Shikamaru looked at Naruto confusedly. "What about them?"

"Their banging this year and there's three super smart ones." He looked around as if looking for someone. I grimaced, how could someone this stupid get into a school like this? Maybe he wasn't academically stupid just common sense stupid.

"What does this have to do with anything Naruto? Seriously why would I even care?"

"Freshman equal freshmeat!" For the first time during the conversation Naruto looked my way. "Whoa!" he exclaimed. "You're going here now? That's awesome! This school needs more cute girls like you!" I blushed a little at the comment and smiled at him. "My name is Naruto by the way! Naruto Uzumaki." He extended his hand for me to shake; I accepted it still trying to smile sweetly.

"My name is Sakura Haruno." I tried to let go of his hand but he held on a little tighter.

"Say." He muttered. "You don't know who I am, do you?"

"Here we go."Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Where the hell is Sasuke to keep you on a leash?" he groaned "I'm going now Sakura." He walked away hands still shoved in his pockets.

"Eh what?" I strained my neck around Naruto to watch Shikamaru's retreating back. "Wait should I know who you are?" I looked back at Naruto confused. Not only was I confused but I was getting slightly angry at being ditched by Shikamaru, who the hell leaves their friend with some weird guy named Naruto Uzu-maki…shit, my mouth shaped into a 'o' causing Naruto to grin slyly.

"Uzumaki, as in mayor of this town Uzumaki!?"

"Yep! That's my dad."

"How?" I muttered and then it dawned on me. This idiot was the mayor's son meaning it most likely didn't matter what score he got on the entrance exam he'd pay his way in, sometimes I really wish I was rich.

"How what?" his azure eyes showing just how confused he was for a brief second, I was seriously beginning to think the guy had problems he began looking around again. "I wonder when we're going to be called for the morning assembly."

"Morning assembly?" I repeated him dumbly.

"Yeah it's like morning homeroom, they do it for the first week until the freshman get used to things." He looked around some more. "Do you know where your homeroom class is?"

"Uh no." I mumbled still trying to get him to let go of my hand. "I don't even know what room it's in." Naruto's face lit up and I groaned as he grabbed my arm and dragged me off yelling something about it being my lucky day.

"Okay!" he began pointing at signs outside of every door. "Since we're sophomores we get the second floor, next year we'll be on the third and well you should get it."

"Were you supposed to say something about the signs you pointed at?" I asked him dryly.

"Oh yeah!" he scratched the back of his head and smiled dumbly. "These rooms are our homerooms and our first period classes, the signs posted outside will have your name if you're in it." He began to look at a sign and I followed suit looking at another. "Oh yeah!" he shouted excitedly as he looked at the sign that was second to last; I walked over to look at the sign and grimaced at what I saw.

"Someone out there must really hate me." I grumbled while Naruto kept grinning at our names placed beside each other. "Do we just stand here and wait?" I grumbled again, all enthusiasm for the day now lost.

"Uh we can go to the auditorium and wait." He suggested, I nodded liking that idea. We began to walk silently me clutching my hands tightly by my side letting my hair hang over my face, Naruto who didn't seem to notice my downcast mood had his hands behind his head as we walked. He looked over to me as if about to say something.

"So!" I cut him off. "Where are the lockers?" he looked at me blankly and then began to grin again.

"Look around you? Every floor has lockers for its students." I looked around bewildered, I was putting myself into such a foul mood that I missed the several hundred's of lockers around me. "Don't worry about that, the teachers get assigned lockers for all their students, we like to keep things clean here so you won't have to worry about a dirty locker…" he paused. "maybe just a smelly one." He chuckled and I forced myself to smile.

I have to admit even though Naruto seemed stupid he was a pretty cool guy. It seemed like mostly everyone in the building liked him and after his lame attempts to get me to go on a date with him it wasn't actually that bad being around him. We separated after I found Ino again, he made a lame excuse along the lines of waxing his unibrow before class started, I figured he just didn't want to be around queen priss and shit I couldn't blame him she was nagging something fierce when she saw us together.

"Why were you with Naru-slow?" she questioned as we made our way to homeroom. Seriously what did it matter to this girl who I hung out with? Maybe if she wasn't such a prissy bitch guys would date her for more than a week.

"Shikamaru ditched me with him." I said grimly as we entered our classroom, conveniently we all had the same homeroom so I wouldn't have to worry about being alone just yet. Me and Ino took our seats closest to the window not too far in the back but not to close in the front where the teacher could always see us. Everyone began settling in, class would be starting in less than a minute and no one wanted to look bad on the first day. I looked around the room for Naruto he was nowhere in sight, I shrugged thinking it wasn't far out of his personality to not care if he was late on the first day. Just then the door was opened everyone immediately shut up and stiffened. All bodies were facing the door as we awaited the arrival of our teacher.

"Gosh you guys are stiff." Naruto walked into the classroom laughing, I noticed two pink bobby pins holding his hair down at each side of his head that had not been there before, I couldn't help but wonder who he got them from or if he just liked to wear girlish accessories. A few of our classmates giggled or shrugged me and Ino groaned.

"Leave it to Naru-tard." Ino grumbled.

"Yo!" Naruto called outside of the classroom. "You better get in here before the teacher gets here, I ain't getting in trouble in the beginning of the year!" he called to the mystery person outside the door.

"Shut up." A cool voice replied dryly. The voice sent shivers up and down my spine and I could tell something big was about to happen because all the girls had started whispering, giggling and blushing.

"Oh my gosh." Ino whispered. "How do I look?"

"What, why does it matter how you look?" I looked around quizzically at my female classmates and then to the door when Naruto opened it all the way for a boy to walk into the room. All giggling stopped and Naruto chuckled as the person he was with grunted, in what I thought to be dissatisfaction. My eyes watched him as did every girl, he was tall, slim with onyx bored eyes, his hair black and skin pale. He wasn't pretty he was damned gorgeous in a very masculine way. He and Naruto sat at the back of the class, boy did they make a pair Naruto's tanned skin and bright hair and that guys pale skin and dark hair. I couldn't take my eyes off of them.

"Yo,Sakura!" Naruto called out to me enthusiastically, I could feel the whole class staring at me and unconsciously shrunk in my seat, the boy next to him was the only one who didn't bother to look at me, he sat with his hand under his chin looking straight ahead.

"Oh hi Naruto." I slouched in my seat with a crimson blush on my face. I turned to Ino looking at the boy and Naruto through my peripheral view. "Who is that boy Ino?"

"That's Sasuke Uchiha." She responded also breaking out of the trance everyone was in.

"Uchiha as in that giant cooperation?" my head was beginning to spin, it seemed like everyone I met in the school was some type of rich, shit even Ino, Shikamaru and Choji were pretty well to do; I was the only one with an average family.

Homeroom was officially over and our homeroom teacher never showed up it took another ten minutes for the man to arrive.

"Ah good morning class, how was homeroom?" Everyone looked at the silver haired man like he was crazy.

"You were supposed to give out our locker information during homeroom!" Naruto barked out and a few other people murmured in agreement.

"That is right isn't it Naruto? Thank you." He smiled graciously at Naruto and then continued to talk. "Well then, my name is Kakashi Hatake for starters, I am 31, single, and my favorite pass time is reading." Go figure I thought not amused in the slightest bit.

"Hence you being an English teacher." Naruto muttered loud enough for everyone to hear, he continued slouching in his seat with arms crossed over his chest.

"Naruto, how about detention. with me. after school." Naruto damn near jumped out his seat at this but quickly regained his composure and snorted.

"How about I tell everyone what's **really** behind that hard covered book." Naruto retorted.

"Hm." Kakashi smiled again at Naruto. "You drive a hard bargain Naruto, how about no homework for the rest of this week?"

"Sweet!" Naruto shouted as everyone else sat with mouths hanging wide open and eyes as big as saucers.

"If anyone brings this up again you'll have to write me a five hundred page paper on why you were wrong in your decision making skills. The class groaned in unison as he began to assign lockers and distribute text books for the next day.

"Finally!" I groaned as me and Ino made our way to our lockers. "Only two more classes for the day." I groaned. "Why is lunch so late by the way?"

"The seniors have 4th period lunch the juniors have 5th and we have 6th be happy we aren't freshman." I shivered thinking about how bad a 7th period lunch was.

"The lunchroom is all the way on the other side of the campus?" I was whining, a clear sign that I was done for the day.

"Yeah but hey look on the bright side a few of my junior friends have our lunch period free." Ino looked at me smiling.

"They can just hang out in the cafeteria?" I questioned not really interested, with this schools upper classmen policies anymore. The upper classmen could probably set the school on fire and it would still be their right as upper classmen.

"Yeah they're juniors and on top of that they're at the top of their class." Freaking geniuses these days I seriously wonder if I'll ever become that smart, if not I'll just marry Naruto hopefully he'll stay rich. "My locker is down the hall." Ino pointed in the direction she was going and left me to look for my locker alone.

"205…" I mumbled to myself. "Aha!" I swung the locker open hearing it slam into something hard. I looked around at a girl I hadn't noticed before. Shit I hit her with the door.

"Ouch!" She yelped her pale eyes tearing up as she held her nose.

"I'm so sorry!" I exclaimed picking up the books she had dropped.

"N-no it's fine, I shouldn't have been facing that way."

"Is your nose bleeding?" I pulled her hand away from her face; she was a very pretty girl with shoulder length dark blue hair, a creamy complexion and very soft facial features.

"N-no I don't think so." She looked up timidly at me.

"My name is Sakura Haruno." I put on my best smile trying not to intimidate her.

"Ah, m-my name is H-hinata Hyuuga, pleased to m-meet you." I began to grimace again; she noticed quickly and looked around desperately. "D-did I do something wrong?" she stammered nervously.

"No."I mumbled. "It's just that you're a Hyuuga and Hyuuga's are business partners with the Uchiha's. Your filthy rich like everyone else." She sighed in relief and then began to giggle. We finished organizing our lockers and walked off to lunch, she explained how her bestfriends were also very surprised that she was a Hyuuga so she was pretty used to people being a little shocked.

"What were you looking at back there that you didn't see my locker door coming?" I asked as we entered the lunchroom.

"Well uh nothing really." I smiled down at the slightly shorter girl and noticed from the corner of my eye Ino waving me over.

"Let's go sit with my friend." I told her smiling politely.

"Oh okay." She followed me biting her lip. When we reached the table Ino squinted while looking at Hinata who was fiddling with her fingers.

"Whoa!" Ino shouted startling me and Hinata, a giant smile spread across her face. "Hinata you changed your look, I almost didn't recognize you!"

"Ah yes I did Ino."

"It fits you really well Hinata." She moved over to make room for me and Hinata.

"My mom made me a lunch box today." I smiled gratefully.

"Mine did too," Ino smiled satisfied. "and it's my favorite." We both began to eat, but then stopped as we noticed Hinata smiling and watching us eat.

"You don't have a lunch box Hinata?" I stared at her between a mouth full of food. She shook her head saying no.

"Why not?" Ino asked.

"My father doesn't cook." She replied shyly.

"What about your mother." Ino asked again.

"S-she passed away after giving birth to my sister." She smiled fondly down at a chain she was playing with around her neck. "This is the last thing she gave to me." she smiled again. "Mom said it would bring me good luck." I smiled sadly, not knowing what to say; thankfully Ino was sociable so she picked up the conversation from there.

Shikamaru and Choji joined our small group shortly after we began eating and then Hinata's two friends Kiba and Shino, personally I thought they argued like an old unhappy couple but if anyone said something like that out loud they'd jump down that person's throat together.

"Any room for us!" Naruto pushed his way in between me and Hinata nearly making Ino fall out of her seat.

"There's no room for you here Naru-noob!" Ino shrieked, until Sasuke dazzled her by sitting across from her.

"Is that so?" the Uchiha began.

"Ah n-no what I was saying was there's no room at the moment, but we can surely make room!" she exclaimed and then glared at Choji and Shikamaru. "Move over!" she hissed at them, they both grunted and made room for her to sit on the other side with Sasuke. So now I had to sit across from him, great. It was bad enough Naruto was damn near giving Hinata a heart attack by playing in her hair, the poor girls face was tomato red and I was sure she was going to start hyperventilating. There was feminine laughter from behind me I was going to ignore it thinking it was just some chick passing by, but everyone on my side of the table turned around to look to see who it was so I turned as well.

"Hey Ten-ten!" Ino and Naruto exclaimed in unison, earning themselves heated glares from each other.

"Yo." She said raising her hand in a wave of sorts, it looked more like when an Indian chief was greeting someone and he'd say 'ho'.

"Did Lee and Neji come with you?" Naruto asked, she nodded and looked down at Hinata who was fiddling with her fingers again. I'm guessing that was just a nervous condition.

"Hinata!" Ten-ten glomped the girl. "You're still mad at me? You shouldn't be; I said I was sorry." Hinata whimpered a little, obviously in distress. "I won't do it again?" Ten-ten giggled a bit. Even I could tell she wasn't being all that sincere.

"You said that last time." A male with long hair approached the table this time.

"Neji!" Hinata and Ten-ten shrieked out together. Ten-ten looked down at Hinata whose attention was now on Neji, she quickly fondled her breast and laughed at Hinata who cowered into herself. The boys at the table were all staring, even Shikamaru and Sasuke who turned their heads and blushed lightly at the action.

"Her breasts are so much bigger than mine." Ten-ten murmered. "Ino you too!" Ino visibly shrank into herself not wanting to suffer what Hinata just went through.

"You should not do such things to Hinata!" another boy pops out of nowhere…how surprising. He was a bit weird looking, his eyes were big and his hair black and bowl shaped.

"Aw come on it's just a joke Lee." Ten-ten whined back innocently.

"You are hurting her feelings!" he looked down at me, his head tilting to the side. "Are you new here? I haven't seen your face around here before."

"Uhm yes I am, my name is Sakura Haruno." I smiled as politely as I could; this guy had just jumped from defending poor Hinata who Naruto was still staring at like she was some foreign creature, to asking me questions. I swear the guys at this school have an attention span equivalent to a squirrel, no it was defiantly lower. Squirrels actually finished gathering their nuts before going onto something else.

"My name is Rock Lee, I am 16 years old and vice president of the judo club!" his stance changed to one that could only be explained as 'all fired up' "Please join the judo club Sakura Haruno." I stared at him wide eyed for at least five minutes, waiting for him to stop posing weirdly.

"Lee she's new here give her a break." Ten-ten murmured, Neji who ignored the whole situation as if it was common occurrence, directed for Sasuke to move over so he could sit.

"But Ten-ten." Lee began and then stopped himself as if a new idea had entered his head "I will make you Sakura Haruno my girlfriend!" My eye visibly twitched as my expression began to contort into several 'what the fuck' expressions. I didn't have time to respond as Naruto who had finally come out of his stupor jumped out of his seat and into Lee's face.

"What the hell are you talking 'bout bushy brow!" Naruto's face was turning several shades of red, delayed reaction much? I think so. "You just met her not even five seconds ago!"

Ten points for Naruto I cheered to myself. "If anyone is going to date Sakura it's me!" my eye began to twitch again as he turned around towards me. "Sakura please tell this guy that I asked first and therefore I'll get to go on a date with you first!" No no no no no! What the hell just happened? Negative fifty points for Naruto and his super cute bobby pins and negative ninety points for this Lee guy and his weird hairstyle.

"No." I paused standing up to leave the table; Ten-ten sat down in Naruto's seat and poked at Hinata.

"What why not?" Naruto whined, I turned and glared at him.

"Who the hell asks a girl out after a day?" I glared at both of them now. "You're weird!" I pointed at Naruto. "and your weirder quite possibly weirdest!" I pointed at Lee this time, and walked out the cafeteria.

The rest of the day went by with Ino telling me how unfortunate I was to have Naruto and Lee crushing on me at the same time, she was purposely drilling it into my head that the weirdest guys liked me. The only good thing about the end of the day was meeting the rest of our teachers and being allowed to go home. Me, Ino, Shikamaru and Choji walked home together, Shikamaru and I had agreed that the day had defiantly been troublesome but Ino who was gushing with energy kept talking about how Sasuke had been staring at her during evening homeroom. If she hadn't noticed we sat in front of the window, Sasuke was merely daydreaming out the window. Hence the reason when he noticed her staring at him and smiling he turned his head mouthing out an 'ew'. Choji and Shikamaru told me it was best that I left her dreaming, I agreed thinking it was best she didn't know how delusional she was. When I got home my parents asked me to rate my day on a one through ten scale I rated it a four for shitty mishaps.


End file.
